[...Even though he's asking, he does as he's told. Maybe this is Ryuji's way of telling him to try to get some sleep? And Ryuji can only sleep facing this way or something.
[God, is this something he's going to end up regret doing? Probably not. At least, he doesn't think he will.
He has some weird views about masculinity and sexuality, so contact with other guys is typically related to dumb things like forehead flicks and the occasional earnest fist bump. It's weird to get any more emotionally invested in that, but... it's Hajime. He'll swallow his pride.]
Close your eyes, and don't make any comments about it, aight?
[On his side, he moves his hand to touch against the flat of Hajime's back, rubbing, up and down, as comfortingly as he can. It's less massaging and more of a rhythmic motion than anything else.
Call him a mama's boy all you want, but when he was upset, and he was a kid, this got him to fall asleep, 9 times out of 10.]
[He makes a bit of a face at Ryuji telling him not to comment on whatever it is -- making snarky commentary is exactly like looking at his hand, it's a crucial part of his character!! -- but stays silent, as requested. At least... for a few seconds.
Is that... his hand on my back?
He can't help it; he arches his back and shies away from the other boy's hand, looking back over his shoulder with confusion and looking slightly weirded out. What is it with Ryuji and Haru and their casual physical contact?! His views on masculinity are... probably not that dissimilar to Ryuji's, and the most affectionate physical contact he's gotten in a long time is something like a handshake, or Ryuji draping over his shoulders, or Haru grabbing his shoulders.
It's weird having anyone try to rub his back, even weirder when it's another boy his age.]
[It's enough to make him recoil his hand like he's just shot a handgun, feeling kind of lost for a moment, and, well... stupid. Trying to keep a neutral expression to hide this weird, rejected feeling, he gives up in his attempt to try and calm Hajime down a little bit.
In retrospect, it was a little much. He smiles back at him sheepishly, swallowing it down, because what else is he supposed to do? He thought it'd help, but, it was probably unwanted.]
Huh? Oh, sorry, man. I didn't think you were a kid or anything... thought it'd help you fall asleep, y'know?
[What he wound up telling Dave earlier felt more self apparent than ever, though- he really does mess everything up he touches. In a literal kind of sense.]
[It just feels patronizing, like Ryuji's looking down on him. It's easier to accuse him of treating him like a kid than it is to ask him just how little he thinks of him.
He's just going to roll onto his back, though, trying not to think about it. It... probably would have felt nice, if he hadn't stopped the other boy. But it was just too far outside his experiences to let it go without some kind of reaction.]
Don't worry about it. That's just the kind of guy you are, huh?
[Friendly, maybe overly-so. Hajime glances sideways, gives him a bit of a crooked smile as if to prove that even if it was kind of -- okay, really -- weird, he's not upset or angry. Just-]
You and Haru both seem pretty laid-back.
[In different ways, maybe, but when it comes to showing affection?? yeah.]
I don't really understand people that well, to be honest.
[It's hard to tell if he's being just particularly harsh on himself as usual, but it's definitely how he perceives himself.]
Up until... a few months ago, I didn't have any friends, really. Haru, even shorter than that. I don't wanna give away the stuff that's hers to tell you about... but. Yeah.
[He sinks into his pillow a little bit more.]
All of my friends... we've been through a lot. And because of the stuff that we had to do to survive... to get by... I guess we just don't care about all that shit society's taught us. Or, even in Haru's case, stuff we've never learned because we were all loners.
[Hajime hums quietly, shifting back over to lay on his side to face him again. He isn't going to interrupt or anything; even he can tell that he's managed to make the other boy feel bad, and that... definitely hadn't been his goal. There's a twinge of guilt that settles, right in the middle of his chest. Maybe he'd been the one who'd overreacted.]
Haru... told me a little. About her father.
[He stops short of calling the guy an asshole, but his opinion is kind of obvious in his tone.
But this isn't about Haru. This is about Ryuji. Hajime props his head up on his hand and shakes it slightly.]
I think you understand people better than you think you do, though. I mean... I kind of wish I could be more like you, you know?
[Ah, fuck. He went and said it, grimacing a little in spite of himself. He hadn't meant to say that with his outside voice. But... the atmosphere just seems right for it, and he presses on.]
I wish I had your confidence to just... reject all that, and still be me in the end.
[Watching him turn on his side to face him again, Ryuji is right where he was a few moments ago, not having changed much other than his hand curled up under the pillow so that he wasn't encouraged to move it or do things out of anxiety- he can never really seem to keep very still.
But hearing him even say Haru's name come out of his mouth, he feels a sense of responsibility that always been intangible, in a way. More than just friendship. They were, after all, thick as thieves.
And then, as if they've reached a mutual level of understanding, his lips pour out a sentence that he probably should never have on his lips to begin with. Chances are, though, that Haru hasn't said anything about this specific thing, and he's going to mess this up.]
Yeah... I mean, guy... was a dick, but he didn't deserve what Akechi did to him.
[And then, finally, he can't take the way Hinata is looking at him as he starts to say that he wishes he were like him. Ryuji seriously doesn't think that he's a very admirable person to want to be like, so he just frowns to himself at that.]
I guess it just kinda comes natural when you give up caring what people want you to be. [He bites the inside of his cheek.] Kinda funny, sometimes I think I want to be more like you. More reserved and thoughtful.
[And then, as if he'd been holding it into his chest, he gives in. Tonight's a night of honesty.]
And not a criminal? There's that, too.
Edited (sorry i shouldn't be tagging this sleepily) 2018-06-15 04:45 (UTC)
[Hajime's eyes widen, and he drops his hand from where it's been supporting his chin. What Goro did to him? He's starting to get a sick, sinking feeling as something clenches around his heart. All Hajime knows is that he's dead -- good riddance, in his opinion -- but to add that little bit about Goro...
He doesn't get the chance to say anything at first, because Ryuji is still talking, and if he thought his head was swimming already, it definitely doesn't help to add Ryuji's confession to the mix.]
...What?
[He's almost surprised to hear his own voice, distantly, as he pushes himself up a little more to get a better look at his friend. There's... there's a lot to unpack there, and he doesn't even know where to start.]
[It took all of, what, 45 days in the station for him to blurt out something that he shouldn't have. That's pretty impressive for Ryuji, actually.
However, the consequences of his words strike him as Hajime startles, sitting straight up and begins questioning. Ryuji feels his face go whiter than possible, a feeling in his stomach that what he did right there? What he just did was fuck up... in the most spectacular type of way.
Wide eyes meet Hajime from his position below- he thought Haru told him? He thought that Haru had brought him into the fold about what had happened, and now that he's come to this junction, he realizes how bad his listening comprehension skills actually were.]
I... uh.
[He sits up.
What the HELL is he supposed to say now? He can't lie worth a damn, and it's not even in his nature to do so.]
[He thought that Hajime would come to know a lot about what happened back in Tokyo, but he didn't think that it'd be this way. It's a conversation that's been sparked months early in advance, and of course, someone like Ryuji isn't going to prepare or budget anything in for his own unfortunate lack of reservation.]
...
[Cornered, he knows he should probably just keep to his in group and push the other farther out. It's the smart thing to do. It's what a thief would do. And the thing about that? Ryuji's not that great of a thief, and has always put his friendships above the job.]
I shouldn't've said anything. Man... [Scratching the back of his head.]
What I'm about to tell you, you can't say a word about it to ANYONE, okay? Like. I need you to promise me. On everything.
[He's not exactly about to go knocking on Erika's door hey my friend is a criminal and someone who trusts me also is probably a criminal.
But that also feels kind of isolating, in a way, now that he's said it. Who can he talk to, if something happens where he can't talk to Ryuji? He doesn't want to burden Erika with his own problems, so that really... doesn't leave an exhaustive list. He presses his lips tightly together and nods more firmly.]
[T-minus 10 minutes until Hajime ends up becoming an honorary Phantom Thief, complete with the hideout meetings and a group of friends that are more intensely overbearing than he knows what to do with. This feels like a cult initiation of sorts.
Ryuji honestly doesn't even know where he should begin. He looks around the observatory, again, just to make sure that no one's there with him. He powers down his communicator, too- mostly because he doesn't want messages to come through, but also, the way Makoto had spied on him before has made him a little apprehensive of being recorded.]
Turn yours off, too. Sorry... it's just. This secret could ruin us, you know?
[He sighs, piecing together the narrative in his head. It's still all jumbled up.]
Akechi killed Haru's father by crushing his... uh, soul? I guess that's what you can call it. His shadow. I don't really think it was entirely his fault though, he was getting used by someone else. I mean, it was still kinda his fault, but what else are you gonna do when the house of cards are stacked so goddamn high against you to begin with?
I know this ain't makin' a ton of sense or anything. So... if you have questions, ask 'em and I'll try to answer the best I can. But honestly... so much of it is kinda bullshit that it's hard to...
[He bites his bottom lip.]
Look, I don't even know where I stand with Akechi. I probably oughta hate him. I don't even know if Haru does, after what he did to her father. But both of us... our party, and him, were bein' pitted against each other by some messed up forces trying to determine the worth of humanity as a whole. I mean. I think that's kinda how it was goin' down.
[It's hard to really put anything down definitively. Ryuji stopped existing for a while and was caught in a jail of consciousness- which, from his perspective, happened exactly a month and a half ago. That's when the real guy behind the curtain pulling the strings showed himself.
[He turns off his communicator, remembering something Erika said once about network security, and folds his hands in his lap. Alright, punk, get explaining.
And then, abruptly, Hajime kind of wishes he didn't know what was going on. Well, okay, he doesn't know what's going on, but leading with crushed his soul isn't exactly explanations 101 here. And continuing with "trying to determine the worth of humanity" is really...
It's not normal. It's the furthest fucking thing from normal. It's shuffling Hajime's entire set of opinions on -- most of them, really, everything from trying to figure out why Goro had shoved Ryuji away that time at the bar, to figuring out just what the relationship among Ryuji and his group of friends is.]
Crushing his soul? The "worth of humanity?"
[This is all crazy. It's nonsense! It doesn't make sense. It's too far outside what Hajime considers normal, even by the standards of this stupid space station.]
What're you talking about?!
[He's... getting loud again, which is what happens when he's frustrated and full of emotions he doesn't understand.]
[This... was going just about as well as he could've thought it would, actually. Ryuji's shoulders slump downward, seeing the frustration in Hajime's features build up to a fever pitch. This was a bad place to be in, for both of them.]
H-hey, calm down for a sec! I know it doesn't make any goddamn sense and I'm doin' a really shitty job of explaining. But it's not all that crazy, right? There are goddamn ghosts on this station, people get trapped in walls, weird signals gettin' sent to our devices.
[And he does... feel bad, particularly at the thought of crushing Hajime's view of him, because he knows he's doing it right now. That if he thought Ryuji was just absolutely some dumbass dork who dropped in from a different version of Tokyo--- well, that's still true--- but the circumstances around it were all based in the supernatural to begin with.]
I guess it's kinda dumb starting at the end and working your way backwards, so maybe I can start from the beginning? [Would that be worse? He looks on at Hajime, worried for him. For his sake, actually. He would never want to hurt him, and that's one of the reasons he was avoiding this conversation to begin with.]
Me and my friends are Phantom Thieves. Ren and I discovered a world that exists outside of the bounds of reality... where peoples' thoughts and desires take material form. People that are particularly messed up have really strong uh... cognitions... of themselves, and what we've done over the last 8 months was basically... going in there and stopping them from being shitty people.
And in order to do that, you have to steal what's corrupting them to begin with. If you steal their desires away from them, they go back to who they were to begin with, and confess everything that they've done. But if you go in and destroy a piece of what's guarding that desire, they become mentally unstable and shut down. That's what happened to Haru's dad. Akechi was being forced into doing it as part of a larger plot against us.
[That's as good as he can explain the situation, but it still feels like it's not exactly hitting home something more important--- and his gaze rises up to Hajime.]
I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you the moment we became friends. But the last time I talked about this stuff out in the open... I put all of us in danger. And I can't do that to them again. [And then, adding on-] And I don't wanna do that to Akechi, either... now that we're all here and he's getting a second chance at being normal. It's... man, it's complicated.
Those are crazy things on this space station. You're talking about bullshit that you did at home.
[The only consolation Hajime can take is that he was right; Ryuji's use of the word "Phantom Thief" back then really did mean more than he'd tried to explain off. He's not sure what to make of his own tone as he mutters that, more to himself than to Ryuji. It's bitterness, resentment, a hint of betrayal. The betrayal, at least, he's fully aware is childish. He was the one dumb enough to think that there could be someone, several people, similar to him on this crazy space station.
But no. He's the only one without something ~special~ about him. It hurts, feeling like he's not good enough. And in spite of all the things Ryuji's said before this, he can't quite squelch the niggling thought that what Ryuji can do? Someone like him? That would be something Hope's Peak would consider a talent. And untalented people don't deserve to stand next to talented people like equals.
His expression shutters, closes off; his eyes narrow to listen to the other boy speak without interrupting. In the end, he shakes his head. How's he supposed to accept this? To make sense of it? It's all bullshit.]
You're telling me... you guys would just. Go and change people against their will? And people died because of that?
[It's one thing to say that what he and Goro did is different. But to Hajime, it doesn't sound all that different at all.]
[Fundamentally, Hajime was both right and wrong at the same time, and the delineation between the two felt really important to make, but in the heat of the moment, with Hajime clearly jolted to the core like this, Ryuji responds in a sharp outburst.]
No!? What the hell, you're jumping to conclusions that ain't even right!
[Ryuji has to bite his tongue at the urge to tell him that he was, actually, behaving like a child. But anger getting the best of him wouldn't solve any of this and just make it worse than it already was.
Breathe, Sakamoto. Don't clench your fists in anger.]
It ain't that simple! Kamoshida... he raped a girl in our school and abused the students. Madarame had used his art pupils to plagiarize work, claiming it as his own and killed Yusuke's mom to raise him as an art mule for him! Kaneshiro was a crime lord who sold prostitutes, was involved in drug trade. Haru's dad was exploiting labor laws and causing people to die of exhaustion and countless effin safety violations in his national company! Shido became the prime minister and planned to ruin our country, orchestrating countless assassinations of his political opponents.
It's not. It's not just the same to say that they were changed against their will. They were horrible goddamn people and the police wouldn't do shit to save any of the people they they hurt or killed.
[This is a mess, he knows it's a mess.]
Nothing we ever did ever caused someone to die. We wanted them to come to their senses and actually feel bad for what they had done and confess their crimes on their own.
If you think it's just something that's totally black and white, well, it ain't. And we had to suffer for our choices. All of us. It ain't... Goddamnit, Hajime.
[He pushes the butt of his palms into his eyes, frustrated that he's not going to make a difference.]
What does it even matter what I did at home? We can't do shit here anymore anyway. The Metaverse is gone. We ain't thieves anymore.
[Okay, see, these are different. Hajime can't keep up with all the twists this story is taking -- again, because it's just so far outside anything he's ever experienced. The worst person he's ever met was the head of Hope's Peak Security, and even if he'd literally tried to fight him, he still doesn't know if he'd try to... to do whatever it is Ryuji's talking about here. There wouldn't be much point, when that's just how people were. Removing him would just put someone else in his place.
But this... it horrifies him, and it's clear on his face that whatever he was expecting, it wasn't this.]
So... that one time when you said people would just start confessing crimes... that was you guys?
[His voice isn't downright combative anymore, at least, but that lower tone, the tone he takes when he's trying to solve a puzzle. And then he lets out a quiet Ah! of realization. Just slid some minigame letters into place.]
[He looks down at his lap, his anger finally winning out in the end as he slams it down against the metal. It hurts, but it also feels good, at the same time.]
Yeah... Kamoshida... what he did... was unforgivable.
[The man who stole Ryuji's future away. He hasn't gotten emotional thinking about his coach in such a long time, that this comes off as almost foreign, almost nostalgic.]
He took everything away from me. And the girl he sexually harassed... she tried to commit suicide.
[He flinches when Ryuji punches the deck. There's a part of him that wants to do something. Say the right thing, apologize, try to smooth it over. But it's just -- too much. He doesn't know what to do.
He's thinking about Natsumi and Satou again. If someone like Ryuji had been there, seen how crazy she was and done something about it... would Natsumi still be alive? Would they be able to prove that even untalented people could stand beside talented people?
Would he do the same, if he knew he could change people's minds? Would he stop at just people with extreme crimes like that, or would he start doing it to anyone he disagreed with? What stops someone from just deciding that it should be done to him?
He doesn't know. It's impossible; he can't know something like that. His stomach tightens with anxious nausea. That does sound like something someone like Juzo Sakakura would do to keep worthless Reserve Course students in check.]
You said... Akechi killed someone, though? He killed Haru's father?
[That line of thought... it was absolutely valid. It's hard to say that "anyone who had a palace" was deserving of having their heart stolen, because that wasn't always true, even as they had seen in Makoto's sister's palace. The line between doing what was just and doing what was done for self-preservation wasn't as thick as it should have been. But there were controls; there were meetings after meetings. Evidence was always needed.
But each and every member of the Phantom Thieves, Akechi included, had been royally shafted by society. Each one of them had been hurt, viscerally, by the crimes those palace owners had caused. And because of that pain, they knew, ultimately, that they would never steal the heart of a person who didn't deserve to have it stolen in the first place. They were the robin hoods of their world. Act outside the bounds of the legal system, avenge those who couldn't avenge themselves.
And that's why it's so complicated.]
Yeah... [Talking about Akechi... is this the right thing to do? Ryuji doesn't know. He probably shouldn't have said anything at all, but here he finds himself even needing to protect their traitor. It's a weird, fucked up feeling.]
We had just stolen Okumura's treasure- the thing that generates... all those corrupt desires. And then someone had come in and destroyed the person guarding it. That person's kinda like... someone's inner self. Their shadow? I guess. But once you destroy that, you destroy the center of their existence. They lose their sense of self completely and... die. We didn't know that at the time, though. We never saw... what he had done.
[It was inexplicable.]
We even celebrated at Destinyland that night. And then... the press conference... [He visibly shudders. It was something televised that he never wants to bring up again. Okumura had a heart attack on tv as black blood started pouring out from inside him. Ryuji doesn't mention it.]
But... Akechi... man. I know what you're probably thinkin', too. Like, he's a murderer, he ought to pay for what he did. It ain't that simple either. He was being used. I told you the cards were stacked against him to begin with, right?
[He's repeating what Ryuji said before, in an attempt to understand and come to grips with it. It still sounds impossibly crazy, but he doesn't think for an instant Ryuji is lying about any of this. This wouldn't be a funny haha you should have seen your face moment. This is all true, at least as much as Ryuji believes it.]
Being used by who? Isn't he a detective?
[He should have been able to go to the police better than anybody. Unless that was just part of a cover story, too.]
[Because... what else is there to say? A shadow is a shadow; it's kind of like a soul, but he doesn't know if there's a distinction. Just feels like that's how it's supposed to work.]
He is, yeah. His dad was manipulating him to do his dirty work. And if he didn't comply, he would've been killed off too. The dude was a high ranking political party member. He used everyone's fear and promised us a new age of a better country, or some shit like that. People ate it up, voted him in as prime minister. But in the background, he was using Akechi to get rid of the people in his way.
[He starts to feel uncomfortable talking so much about Akechi, knowing full well that when this information hits him that it's going to cause problems in more than one way.]
It kinda worked out. He was a detective solving his own cases, so he just kept getting more popular. And we got all the heat for Okumura's death.
[Hajime frowns, staring own at his own hands. Would he have done what Goro did? Would he be able to kill someone, if his life was on the line?
He doesn't know. How could he know something like that? None of this is inside the realm of possibility for him. A conversation that had started #relatable about a shared experience has gradually spiraled way outside anything Hajime's equipped to deal with.]
...Are you going to tell your friends you told me this? Or am I supposed to just... keep this to myself, and pretend nothing's changed?
[He can't comprehend it, so his focus turns to himself, again. Why did Ryuji put this burden on him? Just tell him what to do, since he doesn't know.]
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[...Even though he's asking, he does as he's told. Maybe this is Ryuji's way of telling him to try to get some sleep? And Ryuji can only sleep facing this way or something.
Yeah, that sounds about right.]
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He has some weird views about masculinity and sexuality, so contact with other guys is typically related to dumb things like forehead flicks and the occasional earnest fist bump. It's weird to get any more emotionally invested in that, but... it's Hajime. He'll swallow his pride.]
Close your eyes, and don't make any comments about it, aight?
[On his side, he moves his hand to touch against the flat of Hajime's back, rubbing, up and down, as comfortingly as he can. It's less massaging and more of a rhythmic motion than anything else.
Call him a mama's boy all you want, but when he was upset, and he was a kid, this got him to fall asleep, 9 times out of 10.]
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Is that... his hand on my back?
He can't help it; he arches his back and shies away from the other boy's hand, looking back over his shoulder with confusion and looking slightly weirded out. What is it with Ryuji and Haru and their casual physical contact?! His views on masculinity are... probably not that dissimilar to Ryuji's, and the most affectionate physical contact he's gotten in a long time is something like a handshake, or Ryuji draping over his shoulders, or Haru grabbing his shoulders.
It's weird having anyone try to rub his back, even weirder when it's another boy his age.]
Oi, I'm not a little kid.
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In retrospect, it was a little much. He smiles back at him sheepishly, swallowing it down, because what else is he supposed to do? He thought it'd help, but, it was probably unwanted.]
Huh? Oh, sorry, man. I didn't think you were a kid or anything... thought it'd help you fall asleep, y'know?
[What he wound up telling Dave earlier felt more self apparent than ever, though- he really does mess everything up he touches. In a literal kind of sense.]
Uhh... Yeah! Okay, so bad idea. My baaad.
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He's just going to roll onto his back, though, trying not to think about it. It... probably would have felt nice, if he hadn't stopped the other boy. But it was just too far outside his experiences to let it go without some kind of reaction.]
Don't worry about it. That's just the kind of guy you are, huh?
[Friendly, maybe overly-so. Hajime glances sideways, gives him a bit of a crooked smile as if to prove that even if it was kind of -- okay, really -- weird, he's not upset or angry. Just-]
You and Haru both seem pretty laid-back.
[In different ways, maybe, but when it comes to showing affection?? yeah.]
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I don't really understand people that well, to be honest.
[It's hard to tell if he's being just particularly harsh on himself as usual, but it's definitely how he perceives himself.]
Up until... a few months ago, I didn't have any friends, really. Haru, even shorter than that. I don't wanna give away the stuff that's hers to tell you about... but. Yeah.
[He sinks into his pillow a little bit more.]
All of my friends... we've been through a lot. And because of the stuff that we had to do to survive... to get by... I guess we just don't care about all that shit society's taught us. Or, even in Haru's case, stuff we've never learned because we were all loners.
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Haru... told me a little. About her father.
[He stops short of calling the guy an asshole, but his opinion is kind of obvious in his tone.
But this isn't about Haru. This is about Ryuji. Hajime props his head up on his hand and shakes it slightly.]
I think you understand people better than you think you do, though. I mean... I kind of wish I could be more like you, you know?
[Ah, fuck. He went and said it, grimacing a little in spite of himself. He hadn't meant to say that with his outside voice. But... the atmosphere just seems right for it, and he presses on.]
I wish I had your confidence to just... reject all that, and still be me in the end.
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But hearing him even say Haru's name come out of his mouth, he feels a sense of responsibility that always been intangible, in a way. More than just friendship. They were, after all, thick as thieves.
And then, as if they've reached a mutual level of understanding, his lips pour out a sentence that he probably should never have on his lips to begin with. Chances are, though, that Haru hasn't said anything about this specific thing, and he's going to mess this up.]
Yeah... I mean, guy... was a dick, but he didn't deserve what Akechi did to him.
[And then, finally, he can't take the way Hinata is looking at him as he starts to say that he wishes he were like him. Ryuji seriously doesn't think that he's a very admirable person to want to be like, so he just frowns to himself at that.]
I guess it just kinda comes natural when you give up caring what people want you to be. [He bites the inside of his cheek.] Kinda funny, sometimes I think I want to be more like you. More reserved and thoughtful.
[And then, as if he'd been holding it into his chest, he gives in. Tonight's a night of honesty.]
And not a criminal? There's that, too.
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[Hajime's eyes widen, and he drops his hand from where it's been supporting his chin. What Goro did to him? He's starting to get a sick, sinking feeling as something clenches around his heart. All Hajime knows is that he's dead -- good riddance, in his opinion -- but to add that little bit about Goro...
He doesn't get the chance to say anything at first, because Ryuji is still talking, and if he thought his head was swimming already, it definitely doesn't help to add Ryuji's confession to the mix.]
...What?
[He's almost surprised to hear his own voice, distantly, as he pushes himself up a little more to get a better look at his friend. There's... there's a lot to unpack there, and he doesn't even know where to start.]
What... are you talking about?
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However, the consequences of his words strike him as Hajime startles, sitting straight up and begins questioning. Ryuji feels his face go whiter than possible, a feeling in his stomach that what he did right there? What he just did was fuck up... in the most spectacular type of way.
Wide eyes meet Hajime from his position below- he thought Haru told him? He thought that Haru had brought him into the fold about what had happened, and now that he's come to this junction, he realizes how bad his listening comprehension skills actually were.]
I... uh.
[He sits up.
What the HELL is he supposed to say now? He can't lie worth a damn, and it's not even in his nature to do so.]
Well. Shit.
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[Dude? Now they're both sitting up, Hajime's face twisted into concerned confusion.]
I knew you guys were hiding something from me, but...
[Yeah, he's. Not entirely stupid. Ryuji alone would be obvious enough without Haru stepping on his figurative foot to shut him up added to the mix.
So? Go on. He's listening.]
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...
[Cornered, he knows he should probably just keep to his in group and push the other farther out. It's the smart thing to do. It's what a thief would do. And the thing about that? Ryuji's not that great of a thief, and has always put his friendships above the job.]
I shouldn't've said anything. Man... [Scratching the back of his head.]
What I'm about to tell you, you can't say a word about it to ANYONE, okay? Like. I need you to promise me. On everything.
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[He's not exactly about to go knocking on Erika's door hey my friend is a criminal and someone who trusts me also is probably a criminal.
But that also feels kind of isolating, in a way, now that he's said it. Who can he talk to, if something happens where he can't talk to Ryuji? He doesn't want to burden Erika with his own problems, so that really... doesn't leave an exhaustive list. He presses his lips tightly together and nods more firmly.]
Yeah. I promise.
[He doesn't have much of a choice.]
Tell me what's going on, Ryuji.
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Ryuji honestly doesn't even know where he should begin. He looks around the observatory, again, just to make sure that no one's there with him. He powers down his communicator, too- mostly because he doesn't want messages to come through, but also, the way Makoto had spied on him before has made him a little apprehensive of being recorded.]
Turn yours off, too. Sorry... it's just. This secret could ruin us, you know?
[He sighs, piecing together the narrative in his head. It's still all jumbled up.]
Akechi killed Haru's father by crushing his... uh, soul? I guess that's what you can call it. His shadow. I don't really think it was entirely his fault though, he was getting used by someone else. I mean, it was still kinda his fault, but what else are you gonna do when the house of cards are stacked so goddamn high against you to begin with?
I know this ain't makin' a ton of sense or anything. So... if you have questions, ask 'em and I'll try to answer the best I can. But honestly... so much of it is kinda bullshit that it's hard to...
[He bites his bottom lip.]
Look, I don't even know where I stand with Akechi. I probably oughta hate him. I don't even know if Haru does, after what he did to her father. But both of us... our party, and him, were bein' pitted against each other by some messed up forces trying to determine the worth of humanity as a whole. I mean. I think that's kinda how it was goin' down.
[It's hard to really put anything down definitively. Ryuji stopped existing for a while and was caught in a jail of consciousness- which, from his perspective, happened exactly a month and a half ago. That's when the real guy behind the curtain pulling the strings showed himself.
You know. God.]
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[He turns off his communicator, remembering something Erika said once about network security, and folds his hands in his lap. Alright, punk, get explaining.
And then, abruptly, Hajime kind of wishes he didn't know what was going on. Well, okay, he doesn't know what's going on, but leading with crushed his soul isn't exactly explanations 101 here. And continuing with "trying to determine the worth of humanity" is really...
It's not normal. It's the furthest fucking thing from normal. It's shuffling Hajime's entire set of opinions on -- most of them, really, everything from trying to figure out why Goro had shoved Ryuji away that time at the bar, to figuring out just what the relationship among Ryuji and his group of friends is.]
Crushing his soul? The "worth of humanity?"
[This is all crazy. It's nonsense! It doesn't make sense. It's too far outside what Hajime considers normal, even by the standards of this stupid space station.]
What're you talking about?!
[He's... getting loud again, which is what happens when he's frustrated and full of emotions he doesn't understand.]
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H-hey, calm down for a sec! I know it doesn't make any goddamn sense and I'm doin' a really shitty job of explaining. But it's not all that crazy, right? There are goddamn ghosts on this station, people get trapped in walls, weird signals gettin' sent to our devices.
[And he does... feel bad, particularly at the thought of crushing Hajime's view of him, because he knows he's doing it right now. That if he thought Ryuji was just absolutely some dumbass dork who dropped in from a different version of Tokyo--- well, that's still true--- but the circumstances around it were all based in the supernatural to begin with.]
I guess it's kinda dumb starting at the end and working your way backwards, so maybe I can start from the beginning? [Would that be worse? He looks on at Hajime, worried for him. For his sake, actually. He would never want to hurt him, and that's one of the reasons he was avoiding this conversation to begin with.]
Me and my friends are Phantom Thieves. Ren and I discovered a world that exists outside of the bounds of reality... where peoples' thoughts and desires take material form. People that are particularly messed up have really strong uh... cognitions... of themselves, and what we've done over the last 8 months was basically... going in there and stopping them from being shitty people.
And in order to do that, you have to steal what's corrupting them to begin with. If you steal their desires away from them, they go back to who they were to begin with, and confess everything that they've done. But if you go in and destroy a piece of what's guarding that desire, they become mentally unstable and shut down. That's what happened to Haru's dad. Akechi was being forced into doing it as part of a larger plot against us.
[That's as good as he can explain the situation, but it still feels like it's not exactly hitting home something more important--- and his gaze rises up to Hajime.]
I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you the moment we became friends. But the last time I talked about this stuff out in the open... I put all of us in danger. And I can't do that to them again. [And then, adding on-] And I don't wanna do that to Akechi, either... now that we're all here and he's getting a second chance at being normal. It's... man, it's complicated.
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[The only consolation Hajime can take is that he was right; Ryuji's use of the word "Phantom Thief" back then really did mean more than he'd tried to explain off. He's not sure what to make of his own tone as he mutters that, more to himself than to Ryuji. It's bitterness, resentment, a hint of betrayal. The betrayal, at least, he's fully aware is childish. He was the one dumb enough to think that there could be someone, several people, similar to him on this crazy space station.
But no. He's the only one without something ~special~ about him. It hurts, feeling like he's not good enough. And in spite of all the things Ryuji's said before this, he can't quite squelch the niggling thought that what Ryuji can do? Someone like him? That would be something Hope's Peak would consider a talent. And untalented people don't deserve to stand next to talented people like equals.
His expression shutters, closes off; his eyes narrow to listen to the other boy speak without interrupting. In the end, he shakes his head. How's he supposed to accept this? To make sense of it? It's all bullshit.]
You're telling me... you guys would just. Go and change people against their will? And people died because of that?
[It's one thing to say that what he and Goro did is different. But to Hajime, it doesn't sound all that different at all.]
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No!? What the hell, you're jumping to conclusions that ain't even right!
[Ryuji has to bite his tongue at the urge to tell him that he was, actually, behaving like a child. But anger getting the best of him wouldn't solve any of this and just make it worse than it already was.
Breathe, Sakamoto. Don't clench your fists in anger.]
It ain't that simple! Kamoshida... he raped a girl in our school and abused the students. Madarame had used his art pupils to plagiarize work, claiming it as his own and killed Yusuke's mom to raise him as an art mule for him! Kaneshiro was a crime lord who sold prostitutes, was involved in drug trade. Haru's dad was exploiting labor laws and causing people to die of exhaustion and countless effin safety violations in his national company! Shido became the prime minister and planned to ruin our country, orchestrating countless assassinations of his political opponents.
It's not. It's not just the same to say that they were changed against their will. They were horrible goddamn people and the police wouldn't do shit to save any of the people they they hurt or killed.
[This is a mess, he knows it's a mess.]
Nothing we ever did ever caused someone to die. We wanted them to come to their senses and actually feel bad for what they had done and confess their crimes on their own.
If you think it's just something that's totally black and white, well, it ain't. And we had to suffer for our choices. All of us. It ain't... Goddamnit, Hajime.
[He pushes the butt of his palms into his eyes, frustrated that he's not going to make a difference.]
What does it even matter what I did at home? We can't do shit here anymore anyway. The Metaverse is gone. We ain't thieves anymore.
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[Okay, see, these are different. Hajime can't keep up with all the twists this story is taking -- again, because it's just so far outside anything he's ever experienced. The worst person he's ever met was the head of Hope's Peak Security, and even if he'd literally tried to fight him, he still doesn't know if he'd try to... to do whatever it is Ryuji's talking about here. There wouldn't be much point, when that's just how people were. Removing him would just put someone else in his place.
But this... it horrifies him, and it's clear on his face that whatever he was expecting, it wasn't this.]
So... that one time when you said people would just start confessing crimes... that was you guys?
[His voice isn't downright combative anymore, at least, but that lower tone, the tone he takes when he's trying to solve a puzzle. And then he lets out a quiet Ah! of realization. Just slid some minigame letters into place.]
Your coach, too? He was one of them?
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Yeah... Kamoshida... what he did... was unforgivable.
[The man who stole Ryuji's future away. He hasn't gotten emotional thinking about his coach in such a long time, that this comes off as almost foreign, almost nostalgic.]
He took everything away from me. And the girl he sexually harassed... she tried to commit suicide.
I don't... I don't regret anything we did.
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He's thinking about Natsumi and Satou again. If someone like Ryuji had been there, seen how crazy she was and done something about it... would Natsumi still be alive? Would they be able to prove that even untalented people could stand beside talented people?
Would he do the same, if he knew he could change people's minds? Would he stop at just people with extreme crimes like that, or would he start doing it to anyone he disagreed with? What stops someone from just deciding that it should be done to him?
He doesn't know. It's impossible; he can't know something like that. His stomach tightens with anxious nausea. That does sound like something someone like Juzo Sakakura would do to keep worthless Reserve Course students in check.]
You said... Akechi killed someone, though? He killed Haru's father?
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But each and every member of the Phantom Thieves, Akechi included, had been royally shafted by society. Each one of them had been hurt, viscerally, by the crimes those palace owners had caused. And because of that pain, they knew, ultimately, that they would never steal the heart of a person who didn't deserve to have it stolen in the first place. They were the robin hoods of their world. Act outside the bounds of the legal system, avenge those who couldn't avenge themselves.
And that's why it's so complicated.]
Yeah... [Talking about Akechi... is this the right thing to do? Ryuji doesn't know. He probably shouldn't have said anything at all, but here he finds himself even needing to protect their traitor. It's a weird, fucked up feeling.]
We had just stolen Okumura's treasure- the thing that generates... all those corrupt desires. And then someone had come in and destroyed the person guarding it. That person's kinda like... someone's inner self. Their shadow? I guess. But once you destroy that, you destroy the center of their existence. They lose their sense of self completely and... die. We didn't know that at the time, though. We never saw... what he had done.
[It was inexplicable.]
We even celebrated at Destinyland that night. And then... the press conference... [He visibly shudders. It was something televised that he never wants to bring up again. Okumura had a heart attack on tv as black blood started pouring out from inside him. Ryuji doesn't mention it.]
But... Akechi... man. I know what you're probably thinkin', too. Like, he's a murderer, he ought to pay for what he did. It ain't that simple either. He was being used. I told you the cards were stacked against him to begin with, right?
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[He's repeating what Ryuji said before, in an attempt to understand and come to grips with it. It still sounds impossibly crazy, but he doesn't think for an instant Ryuji is lying about any of this. This wouldn't be a funny haha you should have seen your face moment. This is all true, at least as much as Ryuji believes it.]
Being used by who? Isn't he a detective?
[He should have been able to go to the police better than anybody. Unless that was just part of a cover story, too.]
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[Because... what else is there to say? A shadow is a shadow; it's kind of like a soul, but he doesn't know if there's a distinction. Just feels like that's how it's supposed to work.]
He is, yeah. His dad was manipulating him to do his dirty work. And if he didn't comply, he would've been killed off too. The dude was a high ranking political party member. He used everyone's fear and promised us a new age of a better country, or some shit like that. People ate it up, voted him in as prime minister. But in the background, he was using Akechi to get rid of the people in his way.
[He starts to feel uncomfortable talking so much about Akechi, knowing full well that when this information hits him that it's going to cause problems in more than one way.]
It kinda worked out. He was a detective solving his own cases, so he just kept getting more popular. And we got all the heat for Okumura's death.
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[Hajime frowns, staring own at his own hands. Would he have done what Goro did? Would he be able to kill someone, if his life was on the line?
He doesn't know. How could he know something like that? None of this is inside the realm of possibility for him. A conversation that had started #relatable about a shared experience has gradually spiraled way outside anything Hajime's equipped to deal with.]
...Are you going to tell your friends you told me this? Or am I supposed to just... keep this to myself, and pretend nothing's changed?
[He can't comprehend it, so his focus turns to himself, again. Why did Ryuji put this burden on him? Just tell him what to do, since he doesn't know.]
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